


How to be Human

by Trinz



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Teen for language, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-03 10:09:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8708407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trinz/pseuds/Trinz
Summary: Jesse and Gabriel end up becoming human for reasons that were definitely not Jesse's fault, but he rolls with it, because the sea-life organization that rescued them, Overwatch, is made of nice people who are trying to help(and they're hot).





	

Anger stormed through Jesse as he curled into an open space in the coral reef, a hiding spot he used often after fights with Sombra. He hugged his tail to his face, thinking of how furious Gabriel would be at both of them when he returned. The thought made him further dread his return, making him want to delay, but as soon as that thought crossed he realized that the longer he stayed the angrier Gabriel would get. It was an inescapable cycle of him being an idiot.

 

Jesse, after an embarrassing amount of time, decided to return to his home, and the punishment he would surely receive from the clan’s leader. But, as soon as he left his hiding place a wall of water crashed into him, sending him head over tail, scraping along the side of the reef. Panic shot through him as he recalled Gabriel’s words earlier that morning.

 

_‘A huge storm’s coming, Jesse, can you feel it?’_  
‘Yup,’ Jesse replied dismissively.  
‘How?’ Gabriel scowled down at him.  
‘It’s warm.’  
Gabriel sighed roughly, spewing bubbles out of his mouth. ‘Good enough- but I’m sending you and Sombra out on an early hunt.’  
Jesse shot up straight at that. ‘Why Sombra? You know I don’t hunt well with ‘er.’  
‘That’s exactly why I’m sending you two together, now get going so you don’t get caught up in the storm.’ 

 

Well, Jesse seemed thoroughly caught up in it now. And, to make it better, he was dangerously close to the surface. The thought sparked his resolve, and stories of merpeople that were caught up in a hurricane and swept well inland drove him to kick his tail all the harder.

But, to no avail, Jesse was completely at the storm’s mercy, and he knew that storms didn’t give a shit about him. He was mentally saying his good-byes to the clan when he thought he saw a glimpse of Gabriel’s white and black tail through the dark chaos. Jesse gaped and turned himself against the storm to get another look. As soon as he did a wave receded, pulling him away from the shore and towards what he hoped was Gabriel.

Through the moment of calm as the ocean created another wave he saw Gabriel’s dark skin, but only for a moment before Gabriel slammed into him. Jesse suddenly found himself locked in someone’s grip, he struggled for several moments before Gabe’s voice reached him.

“Idiota!”

“Blame Sombra!” Jesse gaped at his own automatic response, though it was slightly accurate.

Gabriel didn’t have to time respond as the wave crashed down over them, sending them both head over tails. Jesse lost all sense of direction while he tumbled through the water, the only thing anchoring him was Gabriel’s tight grip. Jesse opened his eyes, which he had just realised he had shut tight, to see himself and Gabriel being pushed towards the reef. He suddenly kicked his tail, hoping to slow them down, but all he managed to do was hit Gabriel’s tail. Gabe swore at him, or Jesse thought he did, as the rushing water drowned his words. Jesse opened his mouth to make a reply when a rush of water came from a different direction, sending them crashing into the reef.

 

Jesse woke up suddenly, smelling blood in the water. He shot up, only to slam his body into the roof of… something. Jesse panicked suddenly, jerking every which way as thoughts of aquariums went through his mind.

“Stop panicking.”

McCree stopped at the sound of a pained, but familiar, voice. He looked around his environment to locate the source. He instinctively squinted in the low light, but the scent of blood led him to its source quicker than sight would have. Jesse waded towards the source of the scent, which led him through what he now recognized to be the opening of a cave.

Jesse quickly located the source of the blood scent and dove closer. It wasn’t until he was a couple feet away that he realized that Gabriel was the source of the blood.

“Took you long enough to wake up.”

Jesse jerked suddenly. “What happened?”

“I chased your stupid ass through a hurricane.”

“No- but- your tail!”

“Looks no better than your head, idiota.” Gabe looked up at Jesse. “Though, I think the wake of a fleeing boat pushed us both into this cave. I scraped my tail against the entrance and you were swept further in and hit your head.”

“What?” Jesse cautiously held a hand up to the back of his hand, and started when it came back with blood.

“I guessed you were so worried about your old man here that you didn’t notice yourself.”

He shrugged, then glanced towards the cave’s entrance while avoiding completely acknowledging Gabe’s statement. The storm was still raging outside.

“Looks like you got me trapped in here.” Gabe muttered. “Should have left your stupid ass out here to learn a lesson.”

“Whatever.” Jesse waved the comment away. “I’m gonna see if anything grows in here that I can dress your wound with.”

“I’ll be here.”

Jesse turned to go deeper in the cave when Gabe’s voice echoed behind him. “Don’t forget to wrap your own head.”

He ignored him despite the dull throbbing that had started.

 

Jesse quietly navigated through the small labyrinth-like cave system for half an hour before he found a plant that he could use as a bandage. He grabbed as much of it as he could and turned to go back. But, Jesse suddenly realized how dark it had gotten. So dark, in fact, that he had to rely on sonar. The trip back was agonizing, Jesse barely recognized the tunnels he had gone through, spending many minutes at each juncture trying to compare what he saw to the mental picture his sonar offered him. After half an hour Jesse finally saw light- he swam towards it like it was his lifeline until he went through a small tunnel.

The light definitely wasn’t coming from outside, but, Jesse realized, there’s no reason it should, as it was most likely getting towards dusk. The light was, instead, coming from a small crevice; upon further inspection it was a bioluminescent plant. Disappointed, Jesse turned away, but in the corner of his eye he saw a flash of light. He quickly turned back towards it, looking for something that could have reflected off the plant. Jesse wasted a whole minute searching before he noticed a gold chain beneath the bulbous plant.

Jesse dug it out of the sand, hoping to get some good loot to show off. He wasn’t disappointed when he pulled up a necklace attached to a dark red gem that matched his scales spectacularly. He smiled, a gem like that would definitely be worth a lot. As he put it on Jesse noticed another gold chain. He grabbed that one quickly too; it had a smooth black gem connected to it. McCree wrapped the chain around his hand then backtracked to the last place he recognized. He scanned the intersection, and shook his head when he realised his mistake of following the light.

Now, back on track, Jesse continued, slowly but surely, to make his way back to the cave opening.

“Thought your dumb ass got lost.”

“You wish old man.” Jesse snorted.

“Nah, you’re the only one that knows I’m here- also I can still smell blood pouring out of your head.”

“I had to take care o’ the elderly first.”

“Call me old again, Jesse, and you won’t see the light of day again.”

“That would be threatening if you weren’t bleedin’ out through your tail.”

“Speaking of- get over here and bandage me up.”

“Yessir.” Jesse said automatically.

Gabriel muttered something about respect, but Jesse ignored him as he wrapped the plant tightly around his tail.

“Oh,” Jesse spoke after he finished wrapping his head, ”your grumpy ass made me forget about the loot I found while searchin’ for a make-shift bandage.”

“Loot?” Gabriel turned over to inspect Jesse.

“Yeah, found these expensive-looking necklaces, I reckon they’re from the surface.”

Jesse tossed one at Gabe, who caught it before the gem hit him in the face. He inspected it for a second before slipping it over his head.

“Good find,” Gabe admitted.

“Damn right.” Jesse nodded.

“Alright, don’t get too big of a head, it’s still your fault that we’re trapped in here.”

“Calm down. We just gotta wait out the storm, then we’ll head back home.”

“I am calm.” Gabriel muttered underneath his breath, crossing his arms.

Jesse rolled his eyes, but refrained from making a comment.

They fell into an uncomfortable silence after that, neither really knowing what to say. Both of them lacked greatly in the ‘comfort’ department, but they knew that any comforting words would be brushed off by the other. In the silence Jesse found himself inspecting the amulet he found in the caves. It was incredibly smooth to the touch, but it had an unfamiliar cut.

McCree brought it up close to his face. Was it emitting a light? Jesse rubbed it with his palm before bringing it up to his face again. Suddenly the gem let out a blinding light. Jesse gasped, pulling water down his throat. He dropped the amulet and it thud against his bare chest and he did his best to cough, when he realised he couldn’t breathe.

Panic overtook him immediately, he grasped his neck and kicked his legs out frantically. Both. Two legs. Not a single tail. Astonishment broke through his wall of fear as he looked down at his bare legs, then his eyes stung something fierce. Jesse squeezed his eyes tight as he felt Gabe’s strong grip grasp him. He flailed out to him, unknowingly pushing them both off the ledge Gabriel had propped himself on.

Gabe’s grip grew stronger, which only strengthened Jesse’s panic. He kicked frantically, doing nothing but hitting Gabriel’s tail. Jesse didn’t know how long he was flailing when his head finally reached the surface.

McCree gasped for breathe, greedily gulping down gulps of air. He finally opened his eyes to see Gabriel’s face, which was stuck in between fury and fear.

“What the hell?”

“You’re-” Jesse gasped, “-asking me!”

“You’re the one that’s got legs!”

Jesse opened his mouth to respond when a wave crashed down on top of them; he had completely forgotten about the storm.

When they surfaced again Gabe seemed more worried than angry. “What happened?”

Jesse glanced down at the amulets around their necks.

“I- I was touchin’ the necklace.”

Gabe let go of Jesse to lift up his own. “This?”

“Yeah, it must’ve been magic or somethin’.”

“Can you turn b-” Gabe’s voice was cut off as another wave pushed them beneath the surface.

Jesse panicked again as he felt Gabe’s grip loosen, unused to being unable to see and breathe underneath the water. He flailed again, but this time his fingers brushed against something smooth.

Even through his eyelids Jesse saw a flash of light coming from in front of him. Recognition pierced through him when he resurfaced and trod the water. Gabe must’ve… transformed into a human too. McCree looked down to see Gabriel flailing in the water like he had. He immediately dived down, remembering the arm movements he had learned as a toddler when his tail wasn’t yet strong enough to properly propel him.

It seemed to take forever to reach Gabriel, who at that point had regained his composure and was attempting to breaststroke his way back to the surface. His eyes stung as he took Gabe’s hand, and was about to start dragging him up when he felt something grab his midsection.

Jesse instantly starting struggling against it, but its strong grip unrelentingly held onto him and dragged him to the surface. As soon as they breached the surface McCree heaved Gabe upwards, then started assailing his attacker.

“Calm down.” Jesse’s attacker spoke calmly despite Jesse’s flailing, and kept a tight grip on him. “My name is Hanzo, I am from Overwatch, an organization that oversees sea life in this area.”

“Let go of me!”

Jesse looked up to see Gabriel being restrained by a muscular blond man.

“Calm down sir,” the man responded, “there’s a storm occurring and you would be much safer on our boat.”

“No shit, Sherlock!” Jesse snapped at him.

“Exactly, if you would stop struggling I can help you get on the boat.”

Jesse glanced at Gabriel, trying to communicate with him using just his eyes. Gabe seemed to understand Jesse’s panicked look, and motioned towards the boat.

“Fine.” Jesse grunted.

He allowed Hanzo to drag him towards the back of the boat and heaved him up onto it.

“Woah!” Jesse jumped at the sound a feminine, accented voice behind him.

He turned to see a woman in a skintight suit staring at him.

“You’re naked.” She said.

Jesse looked down at his legs. “Um, yeah, I was… taking a shower when the storm hit, sorry, I was too busy freaking out to notice.”

McCree privately thanked Sombra for her obsession with human culture and her tendency to ramble about it endlessly.

“Uh, it’s alright, we have a lot of clean dry clothes around here.” She smiled. “My name’s Lena by the way.”

“Nice ta meet ya, Lena, name’s Jesse and the old man with me is Gabriel.”

Jesse took the hand that Lena offered him and helped pull himself up onto his legs, albeit wobbly. He’d seen enough humans around to sort of understand how walking worked. Imitating them wasn’t too hard, he wobbled quite violently sometimes, but at least he didn’t wipe out. Lena led him below deck and took the first door on the right.

The room was quite large for the size of the boat they were on, and it was brightly lit and quite full. Rows of aquariums that held many different kinds of fish that were native to the area filled lined the walls. In the middle there was a large table with corals and skeletons littering it. A woman with blonde hair was musing around a wall of cabinets in the back of the room.

Lena cleared her throat. “Angela, we found a couple of shipwrecked souls from the storm- but they need clothes.”

She added the last part quickly before the blonde woman turned around.

When Angela did turn around her only reaction was a raised eyebrow. “Thanks for warning me, Lena.”

“No problem, Doc, I didn’t want you to have a heart attack.”

Angela rolled her eyes at Lena before turning back to assess Jesse. “We’ve got some spare clothes your size, but are there more of you?”

“Uh yeah, my… friend Gabriel, he’s about my size, but I just remembered he cut up his leg real bad.”

“What?” The women gasped.

“I forgot that that had happened, perhaps we should go and get him, especially if you’re a doctor.”

“No,” Angela decided. “Jack and Hanzo will bring him down here as fast as possible, meanwhile get these clothes on and then I’m going to check you for injuries.”

“Alright.” Jesse barely caught the shirt and pants Angela haphazardly threw at him.

Jesse slipped them on as fast as he could while he was still unused to his new legs, then sat down in a chair in front of Angela.

“You don’t look harmed, but you’re probably still in shock, and shock is one hell of a painkiller.”

“Yes ma’am.” He responded absently.

Angela kneeled down in front of him and shined a small light into his eyes. “Keep your eyes open, please.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She smiled slightly. “You listen to instructions well, but I think you have a concussion.”

He looked up at her, questioningly.

“It’s nothing bad, though, I’m just going to check your head for any bumps.”

Angela stood up and went behind him and wasted no time running her hands through his hair.

Jesse immediately flinched at her touch.

“Ah, yes, a concussion.” She removed her hands from his hair. “I’ll be right back.”

The two researchers that rescued them came in while Angela was searching for something to wrap his head with. Gabriel was leaning on them as they entered the room. The blonde one spoke first.

“We cleaned up Gabriel’s leg and put a cast on it for you Angela.”

Angela looked up as she grabbed a roll of gauze. “That’s good, will one of you grab him a pair of clothes?”

“Roger that.” The blonde one let go of Gabriel, leaving him to lean fully on Hanzo.

As blondie went to get Gabriel some clothes Hanzo guided him across the room and sat him down on a chair near Jesse. They shared eye contact while Angela was wrapping his head.

“We just got into an ass-full of trouble.” Gabe stated.

Jesse would have nodded had Angela not been treating his head, so instead he attempted to communicate a nod by waving his eyes all about. Gabriel snorted.

Just as Angela finished Blondie reappeared and threw some clothes at Gabriel. He lifted the shirt and shoved it over his head and onto his body. Next, he grabbed the pants, which had only one and a half pant legs. Gabriel shared a glance with Jesse, motioning to the pants. Jesse just shrugged, but blondie noticed their confusion.

“I cut half the pant leg off so it’d fit over your cast.”

Gabriel grunted in thanks and managed to get the pants on without too much trouble.

“No problem, I’m Jack, by the way.”

Neither responded, knowing Jack knew their names anyways. Thankfully, Hanzo broke the silence.

“We’ll arriving at the shore soon, we’ll give you some money for transportation.”

There was some silence while the two mermaids tried to figure out a way to turn them down.

“Thank you, but that won’t be necessary.” Gabriel said finally.

“Why not?” Lena piped up this time.

“Jesse and I are travellers, we don’t really have a home to return to, our boat was our home.” He paused. “We are both enamored by sea life, and we’ve been travelling from port to port for some time. The storm caught us off guard after some of our equipment broke.”

There was silence after that as the room took in what Gabriel said. Jesse’s silence was mostly because he was praising Gabriel for coming up with a brilliant lie.

“Ah, that’s so sad.” Lena, however, looked quite excited, and her next statement proved why. “ _But_ , we do need some more hands around here, and if you’re already knowledgeable about sea life…”

She glanced at her friends, gauging their reactions to her imposed invitation. Hanzo and Angela’s faces were guarded as always, but Jack looked delighted at the prospect.

“If we get a few more hands we could start sending out two boats at a time.” Jack said.

“I’d love to.” Jesse blurted out suddenly.

Gabriel shot a glare with the power of a thousand suns at him, silently berating him for accepting that kind of commitment with humans, no less.

“Well, I guess we can’t refuse.” Angela said. “We _do_ need more hands, and if you lost your home, we can’t not provide you a fresh start.”

Jesse flashed a smile at her, and just like that, having had legs for less than an hour, Jesse McCree had already landed himself a job that _wasn’t _hunting with Sombra.__

Gabriel was less than happy.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading! Comments are much appreciated, thanks!


End file.
